WORK on a new museum at Castle Cornet means award-winning wildlife photographs will not be coming to Guernsey Museum this year.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition has been a regular fixture in the Candie diary for several years.

‘We have dropped wildlife for this year, but it will be back next year,’ said Guernsey Museums director Jason Monaghan.

‘We have had to reduce the number of exhibitions at Candie because we are trying to put the new Militia museum together at Castle Cornet and a lot of the curators, designers and technicians have been involved.’

Restoration work at the castle is concentrated on the hospital building.

This began in mid-2008 and will continue until the summer. When work is complete, the building will house new galleries devoted to the Guernsey Militia and Royal Guernsey Light Infantry.

Initially, conservation work was carried out on the building, maintaining as many original or historic features as possible.

Former museum displays have been removed and the building stripped of modern fittings.

Period sash windows have been repaired and replaced and modern concrete has been taken out with sympathetic repairs being made to stone and brickwork using traditional techniques and materials.

When the building is ready, museum galleries will be added.